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An ok book for the Tag Junior

My daughter received her Tag Junior for her second birthday last November and had two books to go with it. Since then the amount of Tag Junior books she has got has increased quite rapidly. This alphabet book was the cheapest one I have purchased for her.

The Leapfrog Tag Junior alphabet book is widely available to buy from places like Amazon, Argos and toys'r'us for approximately £10 but can often be found on sale for around the £7-£8 mark. I only paid 50p for my daughters book from a local car boot despite being in fantastic condition, bargain!

The book looks exactly the same as the other books for the Tag Junior with the green and orange spine and the logo at the top of the front of the book. It also has the same thickness of a centimetre. Looking at it, I think its roughly around 17cm tall and 12cm wide so it's exactly the same size as the other books in the range too. The book has a baby board book type feel to it with chunky hard pages that are quite thick. The front and back covers have the same thickness as the pages.

There are 22 pages in total inside this book. Each page is full of colour and has a variety of letters from the alphabet and an animal and instrument with the same first letter as the letter of the alphabet. Some of these include, A for armadillo and accordion, B for Baboon and Bassoon. I must admit, some of the animals and instruments are a little too uncommon for toddlers, I mean my daughter is three years old now and some of the things she keeps asking me what is this and that?! I like how it makes her ask questions but the whole point of the reading system is to give children independence and I don't think this book is that great at letting her get on and read it herself.

To get the book to work properly with the Leapfrog Tag Junior reading system you have to plug the system into the computer and download the audio that goes with this book, one this is done the book can be used to its full potential rather than just be words and pictures on the pages. The reading system picks up the letters, animals and instruments easily and precisely without any problems or skipping. Sometimes my daughter moves the reading system away from a picture before it's finished saying what it is but if that's the way she wants to use it I just let her carry on. The last pages of the book show every letter of the alphabet and when the system is pressed over this it will sing the alphabet song, a lovely way to end the book.

Although this book isn't the best in terms of entertaining my daughter it was definitely the best in terms of price. I don't begrudge paying the 50p for it but I would definitely not pay enough more than £5 for it. The animals and instruments aren't the most well known so toddlers will find it difficult to relate to them but the song at the end of the book is a nice addition.

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A little too much at 2 years old

We bought my daughter the Tag Junior Reading system to try and encourage our daughter to enjoy books as at the time we were struggling a little to get her to read, one of the books that we bought to go with the system was the ABC Alphabet Orchestra book, the book is for Tag Junior and usually retail at around £10 although I have seen them for £5 recently which makes me think there could be a new system shortly.

The book is bright green in colour with a band across the top with the leapfrog logo in the top left corner and the Tag Junior logo in the top right hand corner. On the front of the book there is a large elephant playing a guitar and then the ABC part of the title is in capitals and different colours - pink, red and orange. The rest of the title for the book is written in much smaller blue lettering as it the illustrator details at the bottom of the front cover. The front cover is like the rest of the pictures in the book as in the colours are rather muted rather than being bright like usual on kids things.

The book is made of thick cardboard the same as a baby book would be and your child uses the Tag Junior device to place on the pages and it will read out different things and make different noises. As you would expect from the title of the book this one contains the alphabet and each page has one or two letters on it in the order of the alphabet and with each letter there is an animal beginning with that letter and an instrument. For example A is an armadillo's accordion and then so on throughtout the alphabet. When the reading device touches a letter the letter sound is read out and then the child can place the device on the picture and they will be told the animal and instrument and the noise that it makes. On the final page there are a number of animals from the book with their instruments which all make different noises when the device passes over.

I liked this booked as i felt it introduced rarer animals, the alphabet and different instruments which little ones toys don't usually teach but my daughter was never so keen. The pictures are big and bold but in quite toned down colours so didn't really grab her attention and she wasn't at a stage where she would be practicing her alphabet when she first got it so the most enjoyment she got from it was pointing out the animals she already knew and making animal noises. My daughter is now four and will occassionally play with the device and books but we have since bought her the next reading system so she plays with that more. I think an alphabet book at 2 years may be a bit much for some young children to take in.

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I have mixed opinions

When my daughter turned three I bought her a tag junior as I thought it would aid her reading development. As well as buying the tag I had to buy some books to go with it, one of those being this A B C alphabet book.

A tag junior is basically a small hand held pen that connects with the corresponding books and reads the words out load, provides tasks and objectives for children to follow and basically aids the reading development in general. The tag junior and the corresponding books - including this ABC alphabet book- are recommended for toddlers/children between the ages of 2 and 4.

This Alphabet book like any other tag book is very simple in design. The cover is decorated with a green and yellow background which has a simple picture of an elephant on the front with the title of the book which is ABC Animal Orchestra.

This board book has a total of 22 pages. Each page is made up with a variety of alphabet letters and an animal and musical instrument which both begin with the letter of the alphabet shown on that page.

I would say that this book is very good at teaching the alphabet but the other aspects of the book are, in my opinion not that great. I will give several examples of the activity's and phrases throughout the book.

Alphabet - As well as saying the alphabet out loud as you click on the individual letters it asks tasks such as what is the first letter of your name? or can you touch the animal that matches the letter?

Animals - This is really where the problems with this book start. Remembering this book is designed for children aged 2-4 the animals and the instruments are, I think inappropriate for the age and not the typical types of animals that young children are accustom to. For example the A stands for Armadillo's Accordion, the B for Baboon's Bassoon, and C for Cat's congas, it continues like this throughout the book. A really strange one is Q which is Quails' Quartet; even I don't know what that is!! As it is supposed to be a starter reading book I don't think this is at all very good. My daughter at the age of 3 can't even say many of the words stated above and I doubt that a two year old would be able to either.

A saving grace for this book is that on the last double page the entire alphabet is listed, when you press this it sings the alphabet song. My daughter absolutely loves this, this is really all she will do with this book and this is what got her to understand the alphabet and she can now clearly sing the song without having to use this book as a guide.

Overall I have mixed opinions about this book, in a way I really like it and in other ways I really don't. Aspects of the book I have found to be very beneficial and others I have found to be a pointless addition to the book. My daughter really enjoys it despite not being able to understand what certain things are.

The pen itself is very clear and concise with the words and despite the words not being recognisable for a young child it is still clear. The book is easy to maintain and clean and is very durable due to it being made entirely from board. The pictures within the book are nice and entertaining as well which can be classed as another plus point. I would recommend it, but with caution. This book can be bought from amazon for £8.99.